This was a solid opening match. Made sense to have this as the opener since it got all six guys on the card and the injured Mysterio didn’t have to work a full match. It was a pretty nice match with some fun spots. The face team won after Mysterio hit the 619 and splash on R-Truth. Makes sense since he’s challenging for the WWE title tomorrow night.

CM Punk was backstage with Stephanie McMahon. She wished him luck and offered him a handshake. He responded by saying, “I would but I know where that hand’s been.” Classic. Punk is great.

Mark Henry d. Sheamus via count-out (**1/4)

Some nice story-telling with these guys here with Sheamus trying to take down Mark Henry but falling just short each time with Henry just being too strong. Some people complained about the finish but I think it’s smart booking. Henry has way too much momentum right now to just take a clean loss. He might even be on his way to his first world championship. That’s how hot he is. On the other hand, they’re trying to get Sheamus over as a badass sort of face so having him lose clean wouldn’t be the best idea either. Therefore, the finish made perfect sense. I’d assume that Henry challenges Orton for the world title at the next PPV. Maybe we’ll even see a Fatal Four Way with Orton, Christian, Henry, and Sheamus.

After this match, we had Cee Lo Green come out dressed in what looked like a garbage bag covered in glitter (seriously, who dresses like that?) and he sang a few of his songs. Perfect way to kill the crowd. Thankfully, though, it was quick and painless.

Kelly Kelly d. Beth Phoenix (*3/4)

One of the better diva matches in a while but does anybody really believe that Kelly can actually beat Beth Phoenix? The finish was lame. They should’ve just had Beth go over.

R-Truth was backstage with Jimmy Hart, who he thought was Little Jimmy. Ron Artest was also there. Entertaining segment from Truth as always.

Wade Barrett d. Daniel Bryan (**3/4)

Pretty good match from these two and probably one of the best matches Barrett has put on. I figured Barrett would win this. I assume this leads to a match for the Money in the Bank briefcase at Night of Champions with Bryan going over.

Before the Orton/Christian match, Christian announced his big surprise being Edge returning to be in his corner for the match. Edge had other plans though, as he said that while he did do some dirty things during his time, he did it with style while Christian has become a crying, whining, moaning little bitch. That got a nice pop from the crowd. It was nice to see Edge back for some nostalgia.

Randy Orton d. Christian to become the NEW World Heavyweight Champion (****1/2)

Very strong match from these two and this is easily another “Match of the Year” contender, along with their SmackDown and Over the Limit matches. In this match, there were a lot of cool spots involving tables, kendo sticks, chairs, steel steps, and garbage cans. And as always, the Spanish announce table got got. It properly broke this time, too. Orton was busted open by the end of it. The ending spot with Orton catching Christian mid-air with an RKO on top of the steel steps was great. I really enjoyed this match. We don’t often get to see two guys going all out with weapons nowadays so that was pretty cool. The crowd was into it and they were given a perfect amount of time (25 minutes) to really put on a show. Really good stuff here.

My thoughts on Orton as champion? Christian as champion was nice but even the markiest Christian marks have to admit that it was nothing spectacular. It wasn’t booked very well and it was pretty much going nowhere. Either way, I don’t think that Orton will be champion for long. It looks like this is their way of transitioning the title over to Henry. I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see.

CM Punk d. John Cena (****1/2)

This was another great match from these two. Not quite as good as their Chicago match as the crowd wasn’t as hot and the finish wasn’t as good. Nonetheless, this crowd wasn’t bad by any means as they were really into it for the entire match. Cena and Punk worked their asses off, putting on a match full of unique holds and counter-holds. It was another straight-up wrestling match from these two and it was great. The finish was CM Punk hitting a second GTS and covering Cena only for Cena to put his foot on the rope. Triple H missed it and counted three anyway.

As great as the match was, I think the post-match is what will be remembered by most. After Triple H raised CM Punk’s hand and left while Punk celebrated, Kevin Nash came in from behind and took Punk down with a powerbomb. Nash then left through the crowd. Immediately, Alberto Del Rio ran out with a referee and successfully cashed in money in the bank to become the new WWE Champion.

Am I huge fan of putting the title on Del Rio? Honestly speaking, no. You’re taking the title off a guy who’s been the hottest thing in the industry in years and putting it on a guy who has literally no momentum or relevance at the moment. Nonetheless, I have no idea where this angle is going and I cannot wait for RAW tomorrow to find out all the answers so I guess in that regard, it was a good move. What was Kevin Nash doing there and what will his role be going forward? Did Triple H have anything to do with what happened? Who will CM Punk feud with now? Where does John Cena fit in all of this? I’ll have to wait until after RAW before deciding how I feel about this.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this PPV gets an 8/10 from me. A step down from Money in the Bank but a solid PPV nonetheless with two very strong world title matches. I am looking forward to tomorrow night’s RAW now more than ever so this PPV was definitely a success.

I hope you enjoyed this review. Until next time, I’m out!

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